Also, semi-related, I'm trying out a new thing where I'm tagging these posts with volume number, just in case that's helpful for breaking stuff down into discrete arcs. Lemme know if that's helpful at all.
In other news, before I get into it, in case it matters to anyone I'll be out of town for the weekend of July 4th for Anthrocon -- and, naturally, the first weekend of August for Gencon (where, in case you missed it, I'll be running an Aeon one-shot). I'll be as accessible as always for those, and maintaining the pretense (as always) I'll be able to get any writing work done during that time.
Anyhow, on with the latest Starfinder write-up!
The day after Kech finally recovers from her near-fatal brush with a fungal infection, the group comes to a point where the trees thin and a broad clearing appears. The clearing is centered on an immense stone statue of a reclining elf whose skin bears dozens of raised markings like welts. The figure, about 170 feet in length, rests on its side, propped up on a partially buried elbow and extending its other hand toward the sky. The elf's robe and hair are sculpted of heavily weathered metal, corroded in places. Outside of a plaza of paving stones rendered uneven by emergent plants and eons of weather, there are numerous crumbling outbuildings and other structures. Within the plaza, pedestals that once supported statues now serve as small melted and worn obelisks.
Oh, this sounds like one of the landmarks Halkueem Zan pointed out, the Plague Warden! Take it away, Zan!
"This massive stone figure is a reclining elven form covered in weathered boils. I suspect it is an effigy that served ritual purposes, such as absorbing the illness of some great king so he might live forever."
Delightful.
The group slowly approaches the statue, unaware of the threat looming above them until a flying creature like a sky-blue octopus-starfish-looking thing called a Sky Fisher shifts from 'translucent' to 'visible' and begins firing sticky lasso-like filaments of some sort of goo at the group. It ensnares Virxidor, and he immediately anchors himself to a nearby tree with some rope so it can't pull him away. As the others shoot at it, Zar quickly moves to break the cord while Virxidor gives it a taste of its own medicine with a stickybomb that slows it down. Malesinder rushes underneath of it, leaping up to stab at it with his polearm while it manages to snag Kech as well.
Just when the group thinks they've got a handle on this, a shot rings out and Malesinder takes a hit -- there's a shirren in the head of the statue, shooting out a window at them with a sniper rifle. Zar says 'screw this' and unleashes his energies in a supernova-like burst to dissolve the lassos holding both Virxidor and Kech. As they fight the Sky Fisher, the group ducks behind pedestals to get cover from the sniper, trying to find places to move closer without being shot further. Malesinder finishes off the Sky Fisher, bringing it down on himself, as he's the last to find cover.
The sniper proceeds to duck back into the statue and the others approach. They find a quick way in through a passage in the statue's ankle. Virxidor's stealth drone goes in first to find an empty room with a pool of water (refilled with rainwater via corroded pipes) and wall carvings of tattooed elves washing themselves and a domed ceiling covered with constellations. The group creeps in and, seeing it in person, Zar recognizes that this is some sort of ritual cleansing pool. Virxidor notes the constellations (and not just because that seems like an odd touch for a ritual site involving disease) and makes a note about that for later, as there's Devourer cultists to deal with.
Meanwhile, rather than try to squeeze through the passage, the group sends Malesinder to fly up and over the statue and try to go in through the top since it looks like there's a way in through the outstretched hand, and take their sniper friend by surprise.
They send the drone up to the next room and through its camera Virxidor sees walls covered with depictions of elves tattooing each other with constellations, geometric designs, and strange runic patterns. Twelve stylized elven figures adorn the ceiling. They're heavily tattooed, adorned in different ways, and are marked with starbursts on their foreheads. There are also rows of tall stone benches lining the hall, and a pair of lashunta cultists remain behind them with scatterguns ready to shoot anyone who comes up. Fortunately, neither has noticed the drone, which chucks a smoke grenade at them. One of them is effectively incapacitated, hacking and wheezing, and the frag grenades the drone follows up with don't help. The other cultists backs up and out of the smoke cloud, waiting for someone to come after him.
The rest of the group holds off rather than risk being incapacitated by the smoke, but Virxidor sends the drone forward to get an idea of where the remaining cultists is -- Zar should be able to use his Stellar Rush ability to charge through the smoke and hurt the cultist. Kech tries to just hold her breath and run through the smoke, and while she manages to get through it without problem, the cultist drops his gun, draws a longsword, and stabs her with it. But between the drone and Kech reporting back, Zar knows exactly where the guy is so he's not fully charging through the smoke blindly.
Meanwhile, Malesinder has landed on the hand and crept into a tunnel into the hand. He's got to squeeze through as the tunnel was meant for elves, and dragonkin are considerably larger. But he finds the sniper crouched at an intersection in the tunnel, as she's waiting for someone to come into view further down. But then she spots Malesinder, shoots at him and then ducks back up another tunnel into the head of the statue. Malesinder creeps forward, trying to stay out of her field of vision until he's close enough to engage with a minimum of vulnerability.
As Kech, Zar, and Virxidor's drone engage and take out the remaining cultist, the sniper's in a good spot to shoot down the tunnel at Kech. Malesinder rushes into the head at that point and hits her with his breath weapon, at close range. She's cornered and the other cultist is finished, so she drops her rifle and surrenders.
The group ties her up and gets a proper look around the place. They look at the carvings in the larger hall and come to realize that what Zan interpreted as 'boils' on the statue are in fact stars -- the statue is marked with stars, like the elves who used this site. Virxidor points out that the constellations in the room with the cleansing pool actually shouldn't be visible from Castrovel without astronomy equipment or supernatural techniques that should have been unknown to the elven culture at the time and place of the statue's construction. Perhaps alien intervention? Tough to say. The constellations are known now, but only because of more advanced technology and the ability to travel at faster-than-light speeds.
They poke some more around the site and particularly in the head, where there's obviously some sort of carved pattern on the floor beneath a layer of mold and dirt, and they spend a few minutes clearing it away. They find a perfectly symmetrical circle of 12 stars that some of the inscriptions in the statue identify as the 'Gate of Twelve Suns.' Which stands out because they know there's a site somewhere, possibly one they're looking for, called the 'Temple of the Twelve.' But what stands out even more is that there are characters and inscriptions in the same language they found on the Drift Rock, confirming the Starfinders' theory that there is some link between the Drift Rock and the Oatian elves who lived in this area.
Then the group turns to their captive, who's quick to remind them that all they're doing is pointless and that the Devourer will consume them all. Writing her off as a zealot, and not undeservedly so, Zar proceeds to just execute her. They decide to get what they need out of her comm unit, which is easy enough for Virxidor to hack the protections on.
He finds a lot of logged conversations with another unit, updating them on her movements through the jungle and stuff she's done like causing that stampede of yaruks at the group when they first got into the jungle. Sure, they suspected, but this is definitely proof. They also find that she has several recordings of Eoxian 'reality' programming[0], particularly produced by an elebrian[1] celebrity named Zo![2], including an entire season of a show called Survival Deathmatch Extreme![3].
And we left off there, with the group enriched in gear and knowledge and getting ready to venture onwards into the jungle.
And now for an absurd amount of footnote material:
[0]-- On Eox, they have a section of the planet called the Halls of the Living. The Halls of the Living is a biodome where all of the living population are allowed to reside. Imagine an environment combining all of the reality shows from Satellite 5 at the end of Christopher Eccleston's season of Doctor Who with the Schwarzenegger Running Man movie and maybe just a dash of the prison from Xenogears. It's technically legal because technically any participants are voluntary -- anybody born into the Halls isn't taken into the brutal reality show areas until they're 18 (or equivalent age), and anyone can leave at any time. But if you do leave, you get a one-way ticket to Absalom Station with the clothes on your back and nothing else. But there are people who voluntarily join the Halls of the Living, because if you can keep up with the violent madness in there you basically get to run Reality Show Bartertown. But despite the legality, most parts of the Pact Worlds officially block the programming but as any cable or satellite TV provider will tell you, there's ways around that.
[1]-- Elebrians are the native race of Eox. They're very similar to humans, but with enlarged craniums and brains better at processing information. However, most of them are undead because some millennia ago, Eox unleashed a superweapon at a neighboring pair of planets, destroying them and creating the asteroid belt known as the Diaspora, but an unforeseen side effect of the weapon irradiated the planet and destroyed the atmosphere. A few living members survived in special shelters (one of which became the Halls of the Living), but most of the populace became undead (mostly liches) as a means of continued survival.
[2]-- Zo! is a particularly charismatic and popular producer (and recruiter) of Eoxian reality programming. And yes, the exclamation point is part of his name.
[3]-- It's basically what it sounds like.
No comments:
Post a Comment